1Minnesota 8th Congressional District GOP

Full Committee

June 2, 2015

To: State GOP Executive Committee/co Keith Downey

Mr. Downey:

We urge you to re-consider the culture of opacity that seems to increasingly define your

management of the state party.

Our concerns with conducting the partys business in closed sessions without minutes

was outlined in our letter of March 3rd (attached for your review). It is unclear whether

our concerns with closed meetings have been recognized or addressed.

In view of the suspension of the PCR again, we urge you to maintain a strong focus on

debt retirementin spite of a temptation to do otherwise. Perennial debt continues to

threaten conservative fundraising ability.

The idea of confidentiality agreements is troubling. Executive Committee members who

are elected to represent their respective congressional districts are bound, most

fundamentally, to those who elected them. Without the ability of each Executive

Committee member to enjoy a full exchange of ideas with their constituency, the very

idea of a grass roots organization is corrupted. This CD organization can hardly forward

its thoughts and preferences to the state party when our only representative on the

Executive Committee cannot freely share what issues are under review.

The idea of consolidating GOP emails to a common system for the ostensible purpose

of monitoring or controlling information flow concerns us. The ability of each Executive

Committee member to conduct their communications in the manner deemed

appropriate to them is fundamental to the robust exchange of ideas that characterizes

and fosters a grass roots organization.

We expect substantive minutes of Executive Committee meetings to be widely

distributed to us in a timely manner. The timely distribution of minutes is central to the

transparency that is the lifeblood of a grassroots organization.

It is unacceptable that you again appear to have chosen to second-guess the salaries of

State GOP officers elected by the Central Committee. The election of an officer in view

of his/her salary needs is, in every real sense, a binding contract between the delegates

and the candidate they elect.

Your reported efforts to marginalize Chris Fields and to eliminate his agreed salary has

created a hostile work environment to the detriment of the GOP statewide. We do not

view the deputy chair position of MNGOP as a ceremonial volunteer position. The

deputy chair should manage a portfolio of productive meaningful projects, provide

problem-solving management expertise and should be paid for his/her professional

commitment. We are hopeful that this situation is resolved quickly.

A common thread throughout our concerns seems to be repeated efforts to implement

and enforce various top-down management measures on a statewide organization that

has been legendarily grassroots.

This CD organization supports and requires transparency from our state party. We are

not alone in our displeasure with a lack of transparency that seems more suitable to a

secret government defense program. A case can be made that the current lack of

transparency and repeated financial surprises has negatively affected fund-raising for

the MNGOP.

The idea of openness seems to have wide appeal among activists. Chris Fields

campaigned for the job of Vice-chair on a platform of transparency and information

exchange. The Central Committee apparently found transparency and openness

agreeable and handed him the widest margin of victory April 11thwider than for any

other officer elected.

This congressional district urges you to build transparency, unencumbered

communications and greater respect for the bottom-up process on which our

organizations are grounded.

By separate action, we have directed that this letter be widely distributed to, at

minimum, CD leadership and BPOU chairs. We encourage a dialogue on these issues

for the general good of the Minnesota GOP.

Ted Lovdahl, Chair